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From the (international) OGP. Australian Eastern Daylight Time in bold Open Gov Week is just days away! We’d like to invite you to join us for OGP webinars happening throughout the week. Be sure to check out opengovweek.org for a complete list of events happening around the world and online. Tuesday, March 12 What is…

The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of…

Twenty seven nominees are listed on the PMC website, a good response to the call for nominations for the Forum. Pleasing too that new voices that have not been heard in the open government discussions to date have stepped forward, keen to take things further from here. Current Forum members also on the Network Steering…

The Grattan Institute paper Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics“ is a detailed analysis of government policy making, that finds “Powerful groups have triumphed over the public interest in some recent debates, from pokies reform to pharmaceutical prices, to toll roads and superannuation governance. Stronger checks and balances on policy influence are…

Uncertainty continues about the impact of the changes on many issues including OGP and related matters. The OGP was a Turnbull initiative after much prevarication by PM Abbott about continuing with it. There is nothing on the public record that suggests PM Morrison has taken an interest in the past. In fact, it’s hard to…

The Government gives itself a series of ticks for implementation of Commitment 3.1 in Australia’s Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. 2016-2018 and asserts implementation is “On track.” But 21 months after the Government included a commitment in the plan headed “Information management and access laws for the 21st century,” and described thus: “This commitment…

Adjunct Professor The Hon Dr Ken Coghill, Chair of the Network Steering Committee has provided this comment. “Further to the published list of issues raised with Minister Cormann yesterday: We acknowledged the support provided to the Open Government Forum by senior officials. However, we argued that the purposes of OGP membership could be well…

At a meeting in Melbourne today with the minister responsible for OGP co-ordination, Special Minister of State and Minister for Finance Senator Cormann, a delegation led by Network Steering Committee Chair Dr Ken Coghill called for action to publicly demonstrate that the government is serious about open government reform. Action along these lines could include A…

The Fifth OGP Global Summit is underway in Tbilisi Georgia. The Australian Government is represented by Ms Lee Steel, Assistant Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Damian Carmichael, Department Industry Innovation and Science Other Australians attending are Fiona McLeod SC, Civic Society Co-Chair of the Open Government Forum and Chair Accountability Roundtable, Mel…

The consultation on the draft plan concluded on 8 July. The Open Government Forum met in Canberra on 12 July. The next and final step in this process is government decision making, culminating in Cabinet consideration of the plan before it is submitted and released publicly next month. Thank you to those who attended the…